The present invention is directed to the field of wireless networking. It is more specifically directed to error correlation in wireless networks.
It is generally known that mobile and non-mobile wireless network performance is generally very dependent upon the location of the end user. For example, in RF networks (e.g., cellular telephones), moving out of a service provider""s basic coverage area results in high error rates and/or dropped connections. It is important for a service provider to map the coverage area and find out areas where messages cannot penetrate called dead zones. These dead zones can change depending on time of day, changing interference generators, and even seasonally.
It is advantageous for a service provider to know the dead zones of a service. Because of the difficulty to determine small dead zones the service provider may not actually be knowledgeable of the dead zones of a particular service. This problem is compounded when the dead zones change dynamically due to known and of times unknown influences. Additionally, more often than not these dead zones are sensitive to the communication channel frequency. Presently a service provider is not always able to notify its users in a particular area of channel dead zone mappings and/or a user""s approaching or being within a dead zone. Knowing that a dead zone is channel dependent would enable a service provider to indicate the best channels to be used in particular areas automatically or otherwise. It would thus be extremely useful for a service provider to continuous know the dead zones of a service and or service frequency both as it is statically and as it changes dynamically.
It is thus an aspect of this invention to establish a protocol and method for end users of mobile stations to report regions with high error rates and/or are dead zones. The protocol is such as to yield the error occurrence, error rate and/or the address of the end user. In some embodiments it also contains location information and time of day information. This information may be collected from all or a portion of users every time there is a significant transmission difficulty and/or an abundance of errors. The collected data forms a database which is analyzed to generate coverage maps. This may include the dynamic aspects of the mobile network.
In another aspect of this invention, each mobile station periodically compares its current location with the data base. The results of this comparison enables the mobile unit to anticipate connection problems. In still another aspect of the invention, the comparison is performed by the service provider which notifies the end user.